Police response for Monitored Alarm
The police no longer respond to a bells only alarm unless there is additional evidence of a crime being committed. The police will respond to a monitored alarm, which qualifies for police response.
If you choose to have a bells only alarm system you are relying on neighbours or family to quickly come to your aid, which may put them at risk and you cannot be sure they will always respond.
Immediate response for Monitored Personal Attack
A personal attack signal from a monitored alarm will receive an immediate response from the monitoring station. With a bell only alarm, you are relying on a neighbour or passer by to come to your aid.
Fire Protection
With a monitored alarm system you can also be monitored for fire protection and have the emergency services such as the fire brigade attend. Manual activation of fire alert by keypad or automatic detection devices such as smoke and heat detectors will activate fire alarm signal.
With a monitored alarm, the alarm-activating centre will quickly call the fire brigade, where as a bell only system you are relying on a neighbour/passer by to call emergency services
Police Response for Monitored Alarms
The Police will no longer respond to a bell-only alarm, unless there is additional evidence of a crime being committed. The Police will respond to a monitored alarm which qualifies for Police response.
If you are away for a period of time (e.g. on holiday) and there is a problem with your alarm which requires entry to the house to rectify we can alert a key holder.
With a bell-only system a fault may persist for the whole time you are away, and no one may be available to attend to the problem.
A monitored burglar alarm system has a number of benefits when compared to a burglar alarm system that just rings an alarm in your home.
The police will respond to a burglar alarm system, which qualifies for police response. A Direct Response security system can ensure you have this level of response by providing a URN number from your local police district, this number logs your address and guarantees they will respond to an alarm in your home. There is no guarantee that the police will respond to a bell-only alarm, unless there is additional evidence that a crime is in progress.
If you opt for a panic alarm the monitoring station will respond immediately if it is set off who will in turn contact the Police.
Types of systems
A monitored system is one that communicates with an Alarm Receiving Centre via the telephone line. The Alarm Receiving Centre has unique lines that enable them to communicate with both the Police and the Fire Brigade.
Type A - Remote Signalling Alarms, including intruder alarms terminating at approved central monitoring stations. They must be maintained and used in accordance with British Standard 4737, BS 7042 (high security systems) or BS 6799 Class VI (wire-free alarms). Such alarms will be registered with the police and identified by a unique reference number (URN) and can include personal attack alarms. The police response to their activation will be based on the assumption that an offence is taking place, but against the background of competing urgent calls and available resources. Such a response will also be conditional upon the number of false activations in any 12 month period, in which case the activation may receive a lower priority police attendance.
Type B - Audible Only and Hybrid Alarms, including Bells-Only and automatic dialling alarms, as well as alarms from non-compliant companies and non-compliant central stations. URNs will not be issued for these systems. To obtain police attendance, in addition to their activation Type B alarms will also require some indication that an offence is in progress, e.g. from a witness.
